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Jacob
Jacobs are Monovision Creatures in Iron Brigade. Though they are based on the Resistor Chassis, and are virtually harmless as far as actual offense goes, they are, in fact, potentially the most dangerous Tube in the game. Their role is as a support Monovision - they project a powerful energy shield around nearby Tubes, protecting them as the rest of the swarm closes in. Any Monovision, from the smallest Knob to the mighty Big Willie, can be protected by a Jacob, which makes their elimination an absolute necessity! Jacobs are almost distressingly quiet, their purring noise as they leave the Conduit easily lost amongst the roars and shrieks of other Monovisions. Though the shield projected by the Jacob doesn't make Tubes truly invulnerable to damage, it comes quite close - the amount of firepower needed to bring down a single low-level Resistor under the effects of the shield is nothing shy of madness. A tube formation protected by a Jacob will make it to the objective unless the Jacob itself is dealt with. This spells disaster if the Jacob is protecting the likes of Knobs or Cathodes! As is the case for the other Resistor-based Monovisions, four variants of Burst Transmitter exist. The first version is encountered during the European campaign; these are the weakest, doing the least damage and having the weakest armor. The second is the African-pattern Jacob, which has an angular head analogous to a Scarab Beetle's shell and can both deal and take considerably more damage. The third is the Pacific-pattern Jacob, which is stronger still, and has a wide, wedge-shaped head with a swept-back frill. The final one, encountered only in Rise of the Martian Bear is the Mars-pattern Jacob, which has a broad, anvil-shaped, swept-back head and angular body structure. Tactics for Dispoal CRITICAL THREAT. In any formation of Tubes, the Jacobs are priority one. If you do not destroy the Jacob(s) protecting the Tubes on the move, even the heaviest firepower will be reduced to chip damage against the Monovision menace, and you will not be able to stop them. As such, destroying the Jacob is, without exception, the single most critical element of survival against the Tubes. Thankfully, the Jacob is both very obvious and not very fast - and it is not able to shield itself, or other Jacobs. However, the Jacobs have several defenses all their own - they tend to hide amongst their nigh-invulnerable allies, and because they are not armed and do not attack unless they absolutely have to, Emplacements will target Jacobs last, which means only turrets with piercing (Laser Turret, Piercing Sniper Turret) or Splash Damage (Mortar Turrets, Mines, Explosive Barrels) stand any real chance of damaging a Jacob, and even then by accident. Because they tend to hide in packs, Piercing weapons are ideal for killing Jacobs, as are weapons with Ricochet. The Carpet Bomber sniper is also good at killing Jacobs, as are Broadcasters and Lasers. Grenade Launchers and Artillery Cannons can do well at taking out Jacobs due to splash. Regardless of how you intend to engage them, prioritize the destruction of Jacobs over all else. So long as a Jacob lives, the squad of Tubes it escorts will be nigh-unkillable. Trivia *Jacobs allegedly take their namesake from a kind of Jukebox. *Jacobs become extremely common in survival mode. Seeing 2 or 3 escorting a Big Willie or the like is not unheard of. *Due to a programming decision to make turrets only target Jacobs in the event of only one being alive and separated from the pack, if a group of Jacobs find a way to disconnect from their allies they will rush to the objective, and will not be hindered by defenses. Category:Monovision